Chabad of La Costa Plans New Center

By Leigh Ann Dewey for the North County Times

CARLSBAD, CA — Big changes are under way at the Chabad La Costa synagogue.

Last March, after years of renting the site, the Orthodox Jewish congregation purchased its half-acre parcel and building at 1980 La Costa Ave. Plans are now in the works to tear down the 1,600-square-foot structure and replace it with a worship center to better serve the congregation’s needs.

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Boruch Dayan Hoemes – Mrs Shprintza Weiskohl OBM

With sadness we inform you of the passing of Mrs. Shprintza Weiskohl.

She is the mother of Sarah Piekarski (Crown Heights), Miriam Zukerman (Flatbush), and Chanie Melen (Boro Park).

The Levaya will leave Tuesday from Shomrei Hadas at 11:00am.

Boruch Dayan Hoemes

AskMoses.com, Quicker than Climbing Mount Sinai!

By Duke Helfand and Joanna Linfor the LA Times
<%image(20090203-ask-moses.jpg|525|238|Ask Moses - AskMoses.com)%>

LOS ANGELES, CA — Have you ever tried to define God? Or wondered whether it is ethical to eat meat? Or debated if pornography is a sin?

For a decade, AskMoses.com has been answering questions like these to a growing worldwide audience.

Searching for Noah’s Ark in Turkey

By Christa Desrets for the News & Advance

Located in glacial ice at an altitude of 15,300 feet in 2003, some scientists say the photo suggest its length-to-width ratio is close to 6:1, similar to the description in Chumash Breishis. Satellite image taken by DigitalGlobe’s QuickBird Satellite in 2003.

LYNCHBURG, VA — It’s one of the most familiar Bible stories.

Saddened by the wickedness of man, God directs the righteous Noah to build an ark for his family and two of each species of animal.

TO SWERVE & PROTECT – NYPD ‘CRASH’ COURSE AFTER ACCIDENT SURGE

By Reuven Blau for the New York Post

NEW YORK, NY — It’s back to driving school for the NYPD, which has just laid out $225,000 for its first squad-car simulator in an effort to reduce the rising rate of cop-car crashes.

The Post first reported in August that patrol-car accidents among its 8,839-car fleet have surged by 11 percent over the past three years.

Auschwitz Survivor Dies at 100 in fire at Home in Brooklyn

NY Daily News

David Weiss went to synagogue every day,
including Saturday, the day he died, relatives said.

A Brooklyn man who survived both world wars, the Auschwitz gas chambers and the deaths of four wives perished at age 100 when he was trapped in a fire in his Williamsburg home.

David Weiss had seen the worst of the world but remained deeply faithful. He went to synagogue every day, including the morning he died, when relatives said he returned home for a forgotten prayer shawl and was caught in the flames.

“He lived for God,” said his granddaughter, Faigy Stroh. “A very humble man.”

Neighbors called Weiss a lively man who seemed younger than his years.

“A 100-year-old man and he still walked without a cane – he still walked on his two feet. To be killed in a fire? It is a tragedy,” said Moses Bineth, 31, who works at the minimart where Weiss bought chocolate for his great-grandkids.

Op-Ed: Thank you Susie Essman!

by Dini Freundlich, a Lubavitcher Woman, Beijing China

Although living in Beijing, China, which would seem far from the US and its TV programs, being the Chabad Lubavitch Shlucha here makes me the one that people turn to when they have a Jewish, Chassidic or “Torah perspective Women’s” question. Last week was no different and the big buzz was about the comments made on “The View” by Susie Essman, who plays the role of a Lubavitcher woman in a movie titled “Loving Leah”.

The comments and questions were the talk of my Friday kitchen as I prepared for Shabbat with some University students and the young Shluchot who help us in the Chabad House. I silently listed to them discuss this with a mix of anger, shock, outrage and confusion and a disbelief that in today’s modern and “open” world comments such as hers could be publicly heard and not refuted! They were further more infuriated that noone on the show stopped her or challenged her comments. They turned to me for my thoughts on boycotts, websites and angry emails in response to this outrage.

JLI Lecture with Schindler’s List Survivor – Sold Out!

SKOKIE, IL [CHI] — Over 1400 people filled the Auditorium at Niles West High School in Skokie, IL to hear the story of one man’s commitment to save thousands of Jews during the dark years of the holocaust. Mr. Leon Leyson the youngest survivor on Schindler’s List, kept the crowd spell-bound for an hour and a half while he retold his personal experience of growing up in Cheder, the takeover of the Nazi Regime and how he was miraculously saved through the efforts of Oskar Schindler and his factory.

More pictures in the Extended Article!

City of Ogdensburg moves to Evict Ahava

Watertown Daily Times

CANTON, NY — The owner of kosher food operations in Ogdensburg will be evicted by the city for failure to pay rent and utilities.

Ahava of California LLC, Venice, Calif., reportedly owes the city $90,000 in back rent and $618,138 in delinquent utility payments, according to a four-page complaint filed Friday. The city will evict the business March 10, should the delinquent bills not be paid. The Times was unable to ascertain whether the plant was operating Friday.

Basking Ridge Rabbi Transforms Jewish Icons into Pop Art

by Ralph J. Bellantoni – mycentraljersey.com

Rabbi Yitzchok Moully turns his photographs of Hasidic life into pop art silkscreens. A rabbinical gathering, Hasidic dancers, dreidels and other Jewish icons become vibrant, boldly colored images.

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — A Hasidic rabbi would seem to share little in common with flamboyant pop artist Andy Warhol. But Yitzchok Moully, a rabbi at the Chabad Jewish Center in Basking Ridge, makes pop art with a Hasidic twist.

Surveillance Video of the Thief who Stole the Sefer Torah

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn [CHI] — The theft of a Sefer Torah, valued at over $40,000, shook Crown Heights last week, many different newspapers and TV stations covered the incident along with the plea to help have it returned.

A number of people made an absurd accusation that the theft had been committed by someone who was Jewish, with the reasoning that only a Jew would know the value of a torah. But police were able to pull surveillance footage from two security cameras on the block.